


Sugar Rush

by versti_fantur



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, It kinda reads like an episode?, M/M, Theres a hell of a lot of flipping everywhere, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/versti_fantur/pseuds/versti_fantur
Summary: When one of Robbie’s schemes backfires, its up to the kids to save Sportacus before he flips all the way out of town!//AU where instead of causing a meltdown, sugar makes Sportacussuperenergetic!
Relationships: Robbie Rotten/Sportacus
Comments: 14
Kudos: 71





	Sugar Rush

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you @lazy-alienn’s tumblr anon for thinking of this au! i lowkey fell in love with it ahah hope yall enjoy!

“Sportacus, you never told us _why_ you never eat sugar!”

Robbie swung his periscope around at the mention of the flippity blue elf’s name, twisting his shoulder uncomfortably in the process and grumbling to himself. He focused the lens on the sports field, where one of the brats was talking to Sporta _flop_. 

Zooming in, he turned up the volume lever so he could hear more clearly.  
Sportacus hopped down from the wall where he had been doing one handed press-ups, landing beside the child. (Zippy? Robbie couldn’t remember) 

“Because eating too many sweets isn’t good for your body! And I have to stay healthy to be a slightly-above-average hero!” He flipped into a handstand to prove his point, which elicited an eye roll from Robbie and an excited gasp from Ziggy.

“But you told me last week that it’s okay to eat candy, but only a little bit.”

A frown flickered over Sportacus’ face as he became upright again, and maybe something akin to worry, but it passed as soon as it appeared. After a moment, Sportacus crouched down so he was the same height as Ziggy, “Ok, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else,” he whispered conspiratorially.

“I promise!” Ziggy bounced up and down and Sportacus chuckled.

“When I eat sugar, I get _really_ hyperactive, I can’t stop exercising!”—Robbie leant closer into the periscope, he couldn’t be hearing this correctly, did Sportaflop have a weakness after all?— “I flip and jump and run until I have a sugar crash and fall asleep.” Sportacus made circling motions with his fingers as he spoke, emphasising his flippy-ness. “The more sugar, the more excited I get.” Ziggy stared at him, wide eyed as Sportacus continued, “But I have this button here,” he turned to point at his backpack, “That deploys a safety suit, so I don’t accidentally hurt myself!”

Ziggy’s face lit up with his usual grin, “Oh cool! Can we go and play baseball now?”

Sportacus must have replied, but Robbie had already stepped back from the periscope, a villainous smirk spreading across his face as he swept dramatically across his lair to his inventing bench. With one swipe of his arm, he knocked the scraps of metal littering the counter to the floor with an echoing clang; his new invention already forming in his head. This scheme would surely be the one to chase Sportaflop out of town _forever_!

~~~

Robbie’s disguise was, if he did say so himself, completely perfect. A purple plaid shirt tucked into oversized jeans, with a long black wig tied up in an orange bandana, and a basket slung over his arm meant that Taylor the Apple Seller was complete, with the shiniest, largest apple perched in prime grabbing position atop a stack of others. Fixing his face into an easy going smile, he strolled into town to set up his “apple” selling booth.

~~~

“Hey there!” A strange voice called out to Sportacus as he bench-pressed a park bench, “Care to try one of my home grown a-” the voice gagged, “-apples?”

“Apples? I love apples!” he said to no one in particular, setting the bench down and jogging over to investigate. A woman he’d never met before looked at him from within a small shack filled with apples of all colours and sizes, with one perfectly polished red one directly in front of her.

“Hallo, I’m Sportacus,” he introduced himself, smiling warmly. The woman stared back awkwardly. “What’s your stall for?

“Taylor,” she shook his hand, wiping it on her jeans immediately after. “And it’s the annual Lazytown farmers’ market. It’s been less and less popular over the years,” she gestured around where other stalls should have been but weren’t. “But please, try an a-” she choked, “an app- one of these things.” She picked up the apple in front of her and handed it to Sportacus, “Have this one for free, my treat!”

Sportacus took it gratefully, “Thanks! Apples are my favourite sportscandy!”

Taylor smiled at him, before turning around to attend to some more of the apples, readjusting them in their crates. She muttered something under her breath, but Sportacus couldn’t figure out what. _Probably just talking to her sportscandy!_ hr thought to himself.

Shrugging off the sense that something wasn’t quite right, he said a pleasant goodbye, one handed cartwheeling away as he bit into the apple. 

But where he expected the usual crisp flesh, the perfect not-too-tart, and not-too-sweet flavour, there was thick, cloying sugar. Immediately he dropped the corrupted ‘fruit’ to the floor, but it was too late, the sugar already coursing through his body, until he was no longer in control of his own limbs.

“ _Oh no,_ ” was his last coherent thought, before it was taken over by the overly-energized refrain yelling at him to _move, Move, MOVE!_

And then everything else faded into a sugar-filled blur.

~~~

Robbie didn’t quite know what he’d expected; maybe a tad more flipping than normal, or possibly Sportacus running on his hands. Just enough extra energy that he could make Sportacus flip away, right out of town. He hadn’t anticipated the blue-ish-white blur ricocheting off every wall, building, and bench he could see. 

Well, maybe he’d miscalculated the amount of sugar in the fake apple, or underestimated its effects on Sportacus, but this was definitely enjoyable to watch (if a little tiring). So he picked up one of the apples and leant against the counter, taking a big bite as he lazily followed Sportacus with his eyes. 

Unfortunately, he realised a second too late that that particular apple wasn’t one of his modified candy ones, and he spat it out immediately, gagging at the fact he’d almost willingly consumed sportscandy. _Yuck!_

Taking another apple and thoroughly examining it to make sure this one was entirely sugar, he let himself relax, and enjoy the first half of a scheme well done. All he needed to do now was wait until Sportacus slowed down enough to be herded out of town _forever_!

In the meantime, a nap was looking more and more appealing, and the pillow he’d conveniently brought with him in case of such a scenario just happened to be placed on the wall behind him, ready for him to sleep on. As he curled up on the wall, in the shade his apple shack provided, he could still see Sportacus zooming around, seemingly even faster than earlier.

And for the briefest second, anxiety flickered through Robbie, that maybe he’d gone too far, that having _that much energy_ couldn’t possibly be good for him, but before he could contemplate it further, his tiredness overwhelmed him, tired eyelids drooping closed, and he fell asleep, snoring gently in the afternoon breeze.

~~~

“Hey guys, have you seen Sportacus today?” Stephanie asked after a particularly fun game of pirates, removing her hat to push her bangs away from where they’d stuck to her forehead, her foam sword lying on the ground beside her. The other kids shook their heads.

“He helped me find my soccer ball yesterday evening, after Trixie kicked it into the trees,” Stingy said, smoothing out his waistcoat as Trixie rolled her eyes.

“I _told_ you it was an accident!”

Stingy harrumphed in disbelief, but didn’t say anything else.

“Don’t you think it’s weird?” Stephanie tried again, “Because Sportacus always comes and plays with us, every day? So where is he?” Several puzzled faces looked back at her, before Ziggy clambered to his feet, brandishing his lollipop in the air.

“Let’s find him!” He cried, to which the others loudly agreed, jumping up and running in different directions to find their slightly-above-average-hero.

Trixie raced around the town square, and into the town hall, in case he was talking to the mayor, but there was no one to be found, except Bessie sunbathing on the grass outside.

“Oh, hello dear! Why are you in such a rush?” she asked, not lowering her sunglasses.

“I’m looking for Sportacus, have you seen him?”

“Not since yesterday, he fixed my fence again after Milford accidentally knocked it over again! I’m sure he’s around somewhere.”

Rolling her eyes, Trixie ran off again, leaving Bessie still chattering to herself. Across the road, Pixel and Stingy appeared, shaking their heads that they hadn’t seen Sportacus either.

Meanwhile, Stephanie and Ziggy took off towards the treehouse, rushing up the ladder in case Sportacus was hiding inside. They were met only with disappointment, as they pushed open the hatch and climbed inside, for the only occupant was the resident Lazytown kitten. Stephanie stroked the kitten for a moment as Ziggy caught his breath before climbing back down to keep searching. But as Stephanie stood on the ladder, in the distance she spotted a blue blurry shape hurtling across the fields just outside of town.

“Hey! Look!” She called out loudly to get the others’ attention, and pointing in Sportacus’ direction, “There he is!” She climbed the rest of the way down as the others ran to meet her, “He’s exercising out in the fields, let’s go and say hi!”

They ran out towards him, Ziggy lagging behind them, too short to run quite as fast as the rest, but he persevered anyway, panting as they finally reached the edge of town.

“Hey! Sportacus!” Stingy yelled, but Sportacus made no attempt to come closer, instead back flipping higher into a double twist, and bouncing back down on his hands, before springing up and throwing himself through the air again. “Sportacus!”  
Still no response.

“Is he showing off?” Trixie wondered aloud, frowning as Sportacus continued to ignore them.

“Maybe he’s just not noticed us yet?” Stephanie asked, but Pixel shook his head, his arm raised to point his armband computer at Sportacus’ distantly flipping form.

“My scanners show his energy levels are 193% higher than normal!” he pointed to the readings on the screen, “I don’t think I’ve _ever_ seen him this energetic, he’s like Ziggy when he’s had too much candy, but 100 times more flippy!”

“What?!” Stephanie stared at him incredulously, “Is he ok? We should help him, he could hurt himself!”

“It’s _Sportacus_ though, he _never_ gets hurt,” Ziggy said, and Stephanie hummed uncertainly.

“Look! He’s coming this way!” Pixel drew their attention back to where Sportacus was handspringing towards them, head over heels over and over again. Stephanie wondered how it wasn’t making him dizzy.

“Hi kids!” Sportacus grinned widely as he flipped towards them, before jumping into a cartwheel that circled around them. “Don’t you _love_ moving‽”

“Yeah! Do you want to play pirates with us?”

“Of course!” Sportacus took off towards the town centre, where they’d left their pirate props, much too quickly for the kids to ever hope of catching up to him.

“Why won’t he slow down for us?” Trixie shouted as they chased after him.

“I don’t know,” Stephanie called back, still running, but before they were even halfway back into town, Sportacus was already hurtling towards them again, arms laden with foam swords and pirate hooks, several hats piled up on top of his own.

“Here you go!” He zoomed past them, and before any of them knew what happened, they each had a sword in their hand and a hat on their head. Stingy even had his pirate cape on.

“How did he _do_ that?” Stephanie muttered to herself, as Sportacus ran at the nearest wall, back flipping off the top of it, but his foot caught on a loose brick and he tumbled to the floor in a heap. “Sportacus!!”

She and Pixel lunged forward to see if he was injured, but he jumped back up with a smile as if nothing had happened.

“Are you okay?” She asked, as Pixel lifted his scanner again.

“Yes, I’m perfectly fine!” Sportacus did a back handspring to prove his point, flipping away to get more of their pirate toys, but Pixel pointed to his screen.

“That fall had a 98.97% chance of bruising his leg and he ran away like nothing happened. He needs to slow down and rest, but why won’t he?”

“I don’t think he _can_ stop,” Stephanie frowned, looking into the distance where Sportacus sped around town. “And he could get even more injured if he trips over again!”

“We need blankets,” Trixie decided, “and pillows, lots of them.” Stingy opened his mouth to speak but she interrupted him, “ _Yes,_ even your stuff, Stingy.”

“And I can get my Super-Slower-6000!” Pixel said, eyes lighting up with an idea as he darted back towards his house to find the device.

And with that, the others split up too, determined to help their slightly-above-average hero get back to his usual self, in any way they could.

~~~

The kids’ shouting woke Robbie from his nap, and he groaned as he rubbed his eyes. Surely Sportaflip would have calmed down enough by now. Gripping the wall to keep his balance as he sat up, he glanced around for Sportacus. Eventually he spotted him walking on his hands along the roof of the town hall, and the sense that maybe he’d screwed up wormed its way into his brain again. He hadn’t meant for Sportacus to get into _actively dangerous situations_. Sighing, he turned to leave, but a cough from the front of the stall interrupted him.

“Ooh hello there!” the Mayor waved at him, and Robbie internally groaned. “Are you selling apples?”

“No, we’re closed. All out of stock,” Robbie replied, flipping the sign on the wooden post from “open” to “go away”.

“But-” the Mayor pointed at the crates upon crates of apple, confusion flickering over his face.

“Nope! Closed.” Robbie shooed him away, rolling his eyes, before turning on his heel and making his way to where Sportacus was still precariously balancing on a rooftop. Or rather, had been balancing, for the tile beneath his hand slipped, and suddenly Sportacus was falling through the air. Robbie’s blood froze in his veins as he was unable to stop the events unfolding before him; he couldn’t even tear his gaze away as Sportacus disappeared behind a fence, hitting the ground face first.

But instead of a thud, there was no noise at all.

Creeping around to investigate, and peering between the slats of the fence, he discovered the kids rapidly removing a large pile of pillows as Sportacus cartwheeled away. Huh. _Maybe they’re not so useless after all,_ Robbie thought, sneaking after Sportacus again as the pink girl (Steffy?) instructed the others to load the pillows onto a trolley so they could move them more easily. 

But Robbie didn’t stay to watch. He darted behind a tree as Sportacus dropped into clapping press-ups, silently hoping that he would calm down sooner rather than later.

~~~

After their second pillow pile and third near-miss, Ziggy ran on ahead of the rest, having had a sudden great idea. Throwing a stray soccer ball at a tree meant an apple fell right into his outstretched hands; sportscandy always made Sportacus go back to normal, right?

“Sportacus!” he yelled, chasing him until he turned around.

“Ziggy!”

Now he had Sportacus’ attention, he threw the apple directly towards him. Sportacus caught it easily, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as he thanked Ziggy and took a big bite.

For a moment, Ziggy grinned widely, thinking his plan had worked, and that Sportacus was back to his usual self. But then Sportacus leapt into a triple backflip, followed by several no handed cartwheels, and Ziggy let out a disheartened whine. “It didn’t work.”

“What did you _do_?” Trixie groaned as Sportacus flipped even faster, “Now he’s worse than before!” Before Ziggy could reply, Pixel finally returned with his device. Painted dark blue and shaped like a ray gun, it was covered in flashing lights, with a dish on the end to aim with.

“I got it!” he brandished it in the air for emphasis, “I’ve just got to aim it-” he pointed it at Sportacus, narrowing his eyes, and pulling the trigger, “And he’ll stop!” True to his word, Sportacus did indeed stop. He hung, frozen, in mid-air, halfway through a handspring, as if paused. “It only lasts a few minutes though.”

“He’s supposed to _slow down_ , not _stop_ ,” Trixie rolled her eyes, as Sportacus sprang back into life, completing the flip as if nothing was amiss.

“Fine, let me adjust it,” Pixel mumbled as he twisted some of the dials, “It should work this time.” He pointed the device again, and Sportacus immediately slowed, but continued to move as if in slow motion. “Yes!”

Sportacus wasn’t fully ‘back to normal’, but it meant they had a better chance of setting the pillows in place before an accident occurred. However, this time, the effects of the device lasted even less time, and before they could celebrate, Sportacus was moving about just as energetically as before.

“Come _on_ Pixel, this isn’t working,” Stephanie sighed, “He’s so hyperactive, what do we do now?” They fell into a subdued silence, the only noise the sound of Sportacus’ boot rhythmically hitting the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a shadow moving behind a tree, almost like it was following Sportacus, but she ignored it. It was probably nothing important anyway.

“Did you say… hyperactive?” Ziggy asked after a minute or so. Stephanie nodded.

“Yeah, why?”

“Sportacus told me a few days ago that when he eats candy he gets _really_ hyperactive, and he can’t stop flipping.”

“So that’s what’s happening to him? He must have eaten candy by accident!” Stephanie’s eyes widened in surprise, “How do we stop it?”

“There’s a button on his backpack, we have to press it and his body suit will protect him,” Ziggy frowned in concentration as he tried to remember. “And then he’ll be able to sleep off the sugar crash!”

“We’ve got to press that button then,” she said determinedly, “But how? We can’t get close enough, not when he’s moving so fast…” She bit her lip thoughtfully for a moment, as her eyes landed on the string hanging out of Trixie’s pocket. “Your slingshot!” she cried, “You can chase him, and when you get close enough, you can hit the button with your slingshot!”

Trixie grinned, “Hell yeah!”

“But, but- what if you hit Sportacus with the stone by accident?” Ziggy asked, but Trixie shook her head.

“I won’t, I can aim really well! Can you guys distract him so I can get a clear shot?” She pulled the slingshot out of her pocket, and picked up a pebble to go with it. The others nodded, allowing her to run a few metres away before shouting out loudly in unison “SPORTACUS!!”

He turned sharply towards them, jumping up from the bench he balanced on to flip through the air, but just as his feet left the wooden slats, Trixie’s projectile smacked into his bag, throwing him off balance as deep blue material shot out from his backpack, surrounding him in a long, close-fitting protective cape.

“We did it!” Stephanie cried, high fiving Trixie as she re-joined them. The change in Sportacus was immediate, even as he flew through the air, the sugar crash was obvious in his eyes, as they clouded over and drooped exhaustedly. Even his moustache dipped at the ends.

But at least he was now safe.

~~~

Sportacus wobbled precariously as he landed on the wall Robbie was hiding behind, seemingly unable to hold himself upright for much longer, and so it wasn’t particularly surprising when his legs buckled and he fell into Robbie’s awaiting arms.

“Taylor?” he asked, his voice rather hoarse, and Robbie remembered he was still wearing his disguise. Shaking his head so the bandana and wig fell off, he sighed.

“No, it’s Robbie, I’m, uh,” he paused, “I’m sorry about the sugar apple.”

“It’s ok,” Sportacus mumbled, his eyelids fluttering shut, on the verge of sleep, “You saved me, so it’s ok.” Robbie would’ve contradicted him, but as Sportacus softly started to snore against his chest, he couldn’t bring himself to awaken him again. He didn’t really understand how Sportacus’ words made his heart flutter in his chest, but as he looked down at the man asleep in his arms, and let his eyes linger for longer than he’d ever allowed himself to before, he found Sportacus’ features weren’t as displeasing as he’d always forced himself to believe, and that maybe, from some angles (including the one upon which Robbie gazed at him now) he could even be considered handsome. _At least when he’s not running about at breakneck speed,_ he mentally added, to counter the sudden (almost overwhelming) influx of tender thoughts.

Thoughts that, he realised, he didn’t dislike having.

The noise of the children and the strain in his arms forced him back into the moment, and he awkwardly carried Sportacus over to a bench and laid him down momentarily, ducking back behind the wall to retrieve his wig, and pulling it back onto his head just as the children rounded the corner and saw him.

“Look, he’s asleep,” Stingy gestured towards Sportacus’ sleeping form at the same time Stephanie saw Robbie.

“Who are _you_?”

“Taylor the apple seller, now quieten down and listen to the yellow boy. I’ve got things to do.” He turned to leave, or at least hide until the kids left again, but he tripped over the bandana he’d forgotten to pick up, and landed face first on the ground with a dull “oof”, all the air knocked from his lungs.

A unanimous gasp from behind him, followed by a chorus of “Robbie Rotten!” meant his disguise had been foiled. Presumably by the wig that had fallen off again, and lay tangled beside him. Damn those shoddy wig manufacturers.

“Did you sell Sportacus a candy apple?” Stephanie said accusingly, crossing her arms as Robbie rolled his eyes.

“ _No_ , I gave him one for free. I don’t do this for _monetary gain_ ,” he corrected, and speaking again before they could interrupt. “Now, scurry off home, it’s late and Sportaflop needs to sleep this off without you all waking him up with your _noise_.”

Begrudgingly they agreed that Robbie was probably right, but all went to check Sportacus was actually okay before trailing back to Pixel’s house. Stingy shot Robbie several distrustful looks over his shoulder as he faded from view, and Robbie almost wanted to laugh. How ridiculous it was, how deeply those brats cared about Sportacus.

And yet.

The feeling of warmth flooding through him as he lifted Sportacus back up in his arms, as Sportacus nuzzled closer in his sleep when Robbie began the trek back to his lair, made him realise that maybe, just maybe, he cared about him too.

Shaking his head, he focused on minding his footing as he stepped into the second entrance to his lair; it was rarely used, since it had stairs, which Robbie hated, but admittedly they were less likely to disturb Sportacus’ sleep than the slide, so he struggled down them, almost stumbling with Sportacus’ extra weight. Eventually he made it down into the lair, kicking the lever beside his armchair to make it recline and gently laying Sportacus down on it, readjusting him so he wouldn’t wake up with a crick in his neck.

He stepped back with a half-smile, watching Sportacus for a moment, before groaning and muttering to himself. “ _Fine_ , you can have a blanket, you don’t need to be so _demanding_.”

He retrieved a blanket from the room that was _technically_ his bedroom, but was so rarely used, that ‘room where a bed exists’ was probably a better term, and draped it over Sportacus’ sleeping form, his hand lingering just a second too long on Sportacus’ shoulder as he tucked the edges of the blanket around him.

“Sleep well, Sportasnooze,” he murmured into the quiet of the lair, leaning against his workbench as he tapped a gentle rhythm against it. “Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

**Author's Note:**

> ily all <3 every comment and kudos is another flip from sportacus xD


End file.
